


some men just want to watch the world burn

by yxrtyu



Series: denial is a river [4]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Cussing, Enemies to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Blow Jobs, M/M, Sexting, heavily implied, literally rated because of everyone's potty mouths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:33:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22349596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yxrtyu/pseuds/yxrtyu
Summary: Ricky and EJ and fives times EJ riles Ricky up for his own amusement and one time Ricky serves it right back.
Relationships: Ricky Bowen/E.J. Caswell
Series: denial is a river [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1596217
Comments: 22
Kudos: 175





	some men just want to watch the world burn

**Author's Note:**

> This is something stupid, but it's still pretty essential to the relationship. Can be read by itself or in continuation of the series.
> 
> (Haha, gotta lay off the smut.)
> 
> Title is from The Dark Knight.

_one_

* * *

“ _ Say I'm a bird! Say it! Say it now!" _

_ "You're a bird." _

_ "Now say you're a bird, too." _

_ "If you're a bird, I'm a bird.” _

EJ groans loudly at the scene while everyone in the room shushes at him. 

“You’re literally ruining the movie, tall, dark, and handsome,” Carlos whispers angrily to him from his left. EJ flips him off. 

Whoever chose _The Notebook_ is literally on EJ’s shit list as he honestly cannot handle that movie or anything from Nicholas Sparks (though he does not mind appreciating younger Gosling and McAdams as delectable eye candies). He does enjoy a good chick flick here and there, but from the man of extreme mush mush? Hard pass. He cannot believe _Dirty Dancing_ got outvoted for this nonsense. 

Bored and not wanting to take part in the inane drivel any longer, he rests his elbow on the armrest to his right and props his head on his hand while he turns his phone on with his other. He does the routine check of running through social media feeds before ultimately getting even more bored after 20 minutes, and there was still so much more of the movie to go. 

Looking around at his friends, everyone seemed very into the movie, so he shifts his body (so that nosy Carlos wouldn’t be able to look at his phone) and opens up his pictures. He aimlessly scrolls through to see if there was anything of interest until he comes across a series of blurred photos. Curious, he taps on them and swipes until the pictures get less shaky and become clearer. He smirks when he sees what it is and sends a decent one to the subject of the photos. 

A text sound pings in the room, and everyone whips their head around to shush at Ricky, who meekly mutters an apology before turning off the sound. EJ watches as the younger boy continues to look at his phone and waits patiently, grinning when he sees him squint at his phone before he ultimately realizes what it is. 

Their eyes finally meet, and EJ is thrilled at the way Ricky’s face reddens. 

His phone vibrates. 

16:32  **BILF** _ What the FUCK _

16:32  **BILF** _ Delete this shit!!! _

16:32  **Elijah** _ Oh, relax. You look so good ;) _

16:32  **Elijah** _ Makes me want to see you like this again  
_

16:33  **Elijah** _ w r e c k e d _

16:34 **BILF** _Shut UP_

16:34  **BILF** _ Don’t fucking text me, asshole _

16:35  **Elijah** _ Aw, c’mon _

16:35  **Elijah** _ Don’t you want to feel my fingers again? _

EJ’s eyes catch Ricky’s Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. 

16:36  **BILF** _ Please stfu _

16:35  **Elijah** _ Or my mouth taking you in? _

16:36  **Elijah** _ Swallowing you whole? _

16:36  **Elijah** _ My head bobbing up and down _

16:36  **Elijah** _ Up and down _

16:36  **Elijah** _ My tongue swirling around and licking that spot you love so much _

16:36  **Elijah** _ While my fingers stroke you inside? _

16:37 **BILF** _…….._

16:37 **BILF** _Why must you do this to me……._

Ricky looks at him again, his eyes slightly dilated and jaw clenched while looking adorably mad. EJ looks at everyone to make sure they were still invested in the movie before slowly licking his lips, catching the junior’s eyes darting to the action. 

16:38 **BILF** _You’re trying to kill me_

16:38 **BILF** _I know it_

16:39 **Elijah** _In the best way possible_

16:41 **BILF** _Just watch the movie_

16:41 **Elijah** _Hell no_

16:41 **Elijah** _I’d rather go gouge my eyes out than watch this_

16:41 **Elijah** _Would also rather you eat me out_

16:44 **BILF** _I’m going to kill you_

16:45 **Elijah** _With your dick?_

16:47 **BILF** _I’m going to ignore you now_

16:47 **Elijah** _No, you won’t_

16:47 **Elijah** _Because you’ll be thinking of me ;)_

Ricky stands up suddenly, face extremely red, his movements distracting everyone from the movie.

“You okay, dude?” Big Red asks.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah yeah. Of course, uh, just, uh, bathroom?”

“I don’t have one down here, so you have to go upstairs,” Ashlyn instructs. She tilts her head. “You sure you okay, Ricky? You’re, like, flushed. Are you getting sick?”

“Ah, I’m okay. Just gonna, y’know… man, it’s hot. I’m gonna get something to drink. You guys want anything?”

Everyone shouts their preferences before he zooms out of the basement and up the stairs. 

EJ bites his sweater string as a measure to keep himself from laughing out loud. 

(He ends up following Ricky not too long after, under the guise of “making sure the idiot doesn’t hurt himself doing a simple task”.)

(Said idiot gives him a piece of his mind when they meet upstairs. By kicking him in the shin and stomping on his foot.)

* * *

_two_

* * *

It’s in between classes, and EJ is walking to his class right before his lunch period, his nose buried in index cards that he made for AP government for which he has a test for next week. He makes sure to take the entire 10 minutes in between periods to read the cards, slowly strolling and looking up here and there so as not to bump into anything. He mutters the answers to himself quietly, minding his own business when he feels a body slam into his. 

“Oh god, I’m sorry! I-“”

Ricky cuts himself off as EJ glares at him. “Literally watch where you’re going, dumbass.”

“I just said I was sorry, asshole,” Ricky spits back as he haphazardly gathers his notebooks and pens. “Why don’t _you_ look where _you’re_ going?”

EJ rolls his eyes as he tidies cards and puts a rubber band on them. “I don’t have time for this. I’m going to be late.”

Ricky, however, has other ideas and decides to bother EJ, for god knows what reason. He tries to walk down the stairwell faster to get to his classroom on the first floor and get away from the junior. 

“You literally think you take over the entire school and own everything. Well, newsflash, not everything is about you!”

He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s stressed from the younger boy yipping at him like a bothersome chihuahua on top of how he’s going to be late (well, he doesn’t care that much) as well as the multitude of tests and papers he has coming up. Unable to take it any longer, he grabs Ricky, drags him underneath the stairs away from sight (not that there was anyone in the halls anymore considering there was a minute left), and shoves him against the wall, pressing his own body against his slightly smaller one. He leans into his face, taking in Ricky’s wild, angry brown ones. 

“You’re literally getting on my nerves, and if you don’t shut up…” he moves to have his mouth ghost his ear and blows into it, the shiver that he feels coursing through Ricky’s body heating his own stomach up. “I will build you up and deny you every single time you’re close.”

EJ moves back and grazes Ricky’s nose with his own, feeling the younger boy tilt his head up and reach for his own lips, and he thinks about taking him right then and there. 

But the bell rings, and EJ steps away, smirking at Ricky’s flustered face, eyes still lit with anger accompanied by lust. 

“See you later, dipshit.”

(EJ does deal out his punishment once he’s finished with his hell week as a source of stress relief.)

* * *

_three_

* * *

“Fucking famished.”

EJ grunts in agreement as he and his teammates sit down at their table in the cafeteria. Silently, he looks at his prepared meal: a Quest protein bar, a bottle of Coke Zero, two pieces of grilled chicken breast, a big salad packed with quinoa, veggies, and hummus, and a banana. He groans, not feeling like eating the same thing he has been eating every day since the season started. 

“You okay, dude?” his friend, Mitch, asks. “You’re glaring at your food like it did something to you.”

“I just feel like eating a shit ton of pizza,” he replies forlornly. 

“I feel you. I just want some greasy af burgers from that late night burger joint we went to last month after the away game.”

They both frown at their food and release a sigh together as they dig in. 

EJ does his best to finish his food, and he’s down to a banana when he sees Ricky and Big Red walk in front of his table and sit down not too far away at another to his left. He makes eye contact with the curly headed junior, the younger boy glaring at him before turning to his best friend to continue their conversation.

“Yoooo!”

"Why is your mouth so big, bro?!"

He turns back to his table to see the resident idiot on their team, Jaden, stuff marshmallows in his mouth, everyone else cheering him on to stuff some more in. Then he turns to look back at Ricky and starts peeling his banana, smirking as he catches the younger boy looking at him. 

Slowly, he puts the banana to his mouth, his lips hovering over it before giving it a lick. Ricky jumps, his face constipated with embarrassment, and he promptly looks back at Big Red. The two of them talk before the other junior takes out a textbook and notebook, probably to finish up some homework, and Ricky has no choice but to look at EJ again, not stopping his glare while he drinks from his milk carton.

This time, he puts the banana in his mouth, slowly inching it in, all the way to the back of his throat and stops to pretend to gag before inching it back out, ending his little show with another lick. 

Ricky ends up choking on his milk, coughing and gasping for breath, Big Red thumping him on the back while freaking out over him. 

EJ turns back around to pay attention to his team and takes a regular bite out of his banana, thoroughly pleased with his stellar blowing skills as well as Ricky’s predictable reaction. 

(He ends up showing Ricky that practice makes perfect later in his car when he gets out of water polo practice. Only after Ricky chops him in the throat.)

* * *

_ four _

* * *

It was someone’s idea to check out the Korean spa that just opened up in town, and everyone agreed thinking that it’ll be good fun. 

What no one was expecting was the fact that you had to go into the hot baths completely buck naked. 

“Relax, guys, it’s literally just a very nice locker room with nice warm baths,” EJ reassures everyone. “What’s not to like?”

“But… the water… has been touched by many dicks,” Big Red squeaks out quietly. 

“Oh, get your head out of your 1950s conservative ass, you dumb stick of gum,” Carlos snaps at him. “Your fragile masculinity is showing.”

The resident redhead sputters and hangs his head in defeat. The Latino turns to look at everyone else that was not Seb or EJ looking wildly uncomfortable. 

“All of you need to get over yourselves and just enjoy some bubbles, alright? There are spas like this in Europe, Japan, and Korea, and no one is freaking out over the fact that they will be sharing baths with their dicks out. So shut the fuck up and strip and get in there without complaining or you can skip this part and head straight to the saunas with a bathrobe to cover up your stupid, tiny, male ego.”

Everyone stands there, silent and not wanting to further upset Carlos. To temper the situation, EJ decides to speak up.

“Besides, the girls are doing the same thing, you know,” he says with a wink. 

His statement causes everyone to perk up and whisper among themselves, now more excited than ever. 

Carlos, visibly exasperated, throws his hands up in the air as he walks away. “Fucking straight boys.”

They all collectively gather their things and find lockers, chattering excitedly amongst themselves about being able to relax. EJ purposely stands next to Ricky, who he finds is adorably miffed. 

“Why the fuck are you next to me?”

“It’s a free world, Bowen. I can stand here if I want.”

Ricky shoves him. “Go fucking stand somewhere else!” 

“Okay, you big baby.”

So EJ turns to head some lockers down, eyes still making contact with the younger boy’s. Turning slightly around, he moves to take his shirt off, making sure to flex his back muscles that he knows Ricky thoroughly enjoys (he assumes because the other boy seems to like taking him from behind). Once it’s off, he tilts his head back to look at him. 

“Like what you see, Bowen?”

His only response is a middle finger before Ricky’s red face hides behind his own locker. 

Throughout the day, he purposely moves in Ricky’s line of sight and does his best to keep the junior’s eyes trained on his body, on the water rivulets dripping down when they’re in the baths, and on the sweat forming on his skin when they’re in the saunas. 

“Dude, you okay? You’re not dehydrated are you?” Big Red asks concernedly. “Let me get you-oh boy!”

EJ turns around. He almost bursts out laughing when he sees what Big Red sees.

“What? What is it?!” Ricky asks, panic rising in his voice. 

“Your nose is bleeding! Come on, let’s get you out of here.”

Once they both leave, EJ lets his composure fall, his boisterous laughter filling the boiling room and annoying the other occupants who yell at him to get out. 

(EJ starts sending pics of anime guys getting nosebleeds to Ricky. Eventually, he gets his own nose to bleed when Ricky punches him in the face.)

(With his fist. Not his lips. But beggars can’t be choosers, he supposes.)

* * *

_ five _

* * *

“Damn, Ricky, do your thighs not get any sun?” Gina teases, unable to control her laughter. “I swear, I think I’m going blind.”

The comment has EJ whirling around and zooming in on what is indeed Ricky’s pasty thighs showing from below the black skin tight article of clothing. He makes a hum of appreciation and approval at the sight, taking in toned thighs and calves most likely from him having to crouch down while skateboarding. 

He also smirks upon remembering how those exact thighs felt around his waist the other day in his room.

“Shut up, Gina. I am a white boy, and I don’t wear shorts past my mid thighs during the summer,” Ricky snaps back. He reaches down to try and pull down the biker shorts that the dancer made him try on. “Why the fuck are these so short? How do these not ride your crotch? How does your crotch even _breathe_?”

“Stop being dramatic. They’re still mid thigh, just… maybe not the mid thigh shorts you’re used to. Now c’mon, I’m about to start teaching.”

Gina goes to leave the room and starts for the auditorium to help everyone stretch prior to the ballet class Miss Jenn wanted her to hold, leaving EJ and Ricky to themselves. EJ turns around and starts packing his clothes that he wore during the day while snickering to himself over the pickup line he wants to try on the shorter boy. He hears Ricky groan again and start to make his way towards the door. As soon as EJ sees him out of the corner of his eye, he grabs his wrist, stopping him effectively and making the skateboarder look at him. 

“Don’t mind, Gina,” EJ starts. Then he walks closer to him, taking in Ricky’s questioning expression that turns red from most likely embarrassment when EJ gets all up in his face, his nose barely touching. “I think your white ass thighs would make for great ear warmers.”

Ricky furrows his brows. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? How does that even work?”

Ah, to be dense and naive. EJ only shoots him a smirk before leaning in to blow in his ear. Ricky pushes him away, his face red, the sight never failing to make EJ laugh.

“That’s for me to know and to thoroughly enjoy the picture of and for you to find out.”

EJ winks at the confused younger boy and exits the room to go into the auditorium where everyone was already stretching. 

Some time later, when Gina is attempting to teach people how to do sautes in place, he watches Ricky’s face contort from concentration, to realization, then to straight embarrassment, turning various degrees red before hiding in his hands. EJ has a hard time holding his laughter, and Carlos next to him has to ask if he is okay. The only response he could give his friend is a shake of his head.

However, it gets to be too much, and EJ just can’t take any more of Ricky silently freaking out and proceeds to burst out laughing, disrupting the entire class. 

(Ricky punches him in the stomach when they’re alone. Still, EJ deemed it totally worth the look on his face.)

* * *

one

* * *

“What’s this?”

“Speedos.”

“For who?”

“You.”

“They’re… thongs.”

Ricky smirks. EJ’s face heats up. 

“No way. I’m not gonna-“”

“Honestly, I just wanted to see your face. You’re fucking hilarious.”

EJ groans, covering his face in embarrassment, as Ricky laughs at his expense.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on twitter @__ieatcereal to look at me scream about pairings, fandoms, complain about my life, and drunk tweet/tweet while high.


End file.
